I'm not trying to be "trolling" here! I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to offend or upset anyone. Maybe Trump will be a good guy & good President for America after all. I'll give him a chance & see how it goes from there! I'm really sorry for offending and upsetting any of you with my last comment post in here! I'm really sorry.

This was never an issue until the DNC leaks came out, so I'm veeeeery skeptical. But hey, maybe that's just my chronic skepticitis kicking in again.

Besides, remember when we were so sure Iraq had WMDs? Look how that turned out—we started an entire war over what was literally an obvious lie. I really hope we don't make that same mistake again this decade.

I get what they're on about, they mean that being a women doesnt automatically qualify you to be president. (Not that being is a women is bad for being a president.)

At least i hope that's what they meant...

-----

Just a thought on foreign policy.I'm actually pro Assad and I think the USA and UK should either back him or leave the area. Sure, he isn't a perfect ruler by any stretch of the imagination, but he's surely a heck of a lot better than ISIS, and he is the the only Middle Eastern Leader do anything meaningful about them. Also, if we were to pull out, western lives and money would be saved, Russia would have their little proxy war and have Assad back in power, and ISIS would most likely by in a severely weakened state in a matter of months. Win-win situation.

I'm getting really tired of these protesters, honestly. I've had to stay away from my newsfeed for the past few days because of how whiny and unbearable it is. I, and a lot of Trump supporters, voted for him despite his abusive rhetoric, not because of it. What are people protesting anyway? Trump is not even president yet—he has done nothing. In fact, he has actually gone back on a lot of the more controversial promises he made while he was running, such as repealing Obamacare. Sure, once he is inaugurated, and he does something stupid, that's when people can start protesting. The second Trump bans Muslims or gays, that is when I will join them in the streets. But now we need to accept that he won the election fair and square. Whatever you think about his policies, his temperament, or his stupid hair, he won and he is our president now. I understand people's frustrations but to protest him simply for winning...? It's childish and it makes the left look like sore losers.

For people complaining about the fact that Trump -may- lose the popular vote, why are you complaining now? If you feel so strongly about how much the electoral college system sucks, you should have done something long before voting began. Even if it is flawed, this is the way we have historically chosen our presidents and this is the system that all the candidates agreed to play by when they declared that they were running. You do not get to retroactively decide the rules of a game after one side has already won.

For the people saying that Trump should be impeached—do you even know how impeachment works? US presidents can only be impeached while in office. Do you really think that the Republican-controlled House will eagerly vote to impeach him, and that the Republican-controlled Senate will decide that he's guilty? And even if that does happen, guess what, we have President Mike Pence, another Republican (and an even more conservative one at that).

And by the way, screw Hillary for complaining that Comey is the reason she lost the election. I can say that as a former Bernie Sanders supporter, my mind was made up long ago, back in July in fact. I hated both candidates back then but I was actually leaning toward Hillary before the proof of her rigging shenanigans leaked out. Once again, screw Hillary, she deserves to lose.

---RANT OVER---

Yeah, with the DNC leaks and no fly zone in syria, I honestly in good conscience could not of voted for Clinton. Despite a lot of my difference in opinion with Trump, I'd of personally picked him over Clinton, because there's huge corruption on both sides, but I felt like he was the one who, in the end, reflected the will of the american people the most of the 2 major candidates in the end. I voted for Bernie in the primaries because I absolutely wanted him to become president and think that the US could really benefit from a lot of the ideas he was presenting. During the election I voted for Johnson because he honestly just personally reflected my views the most out of anyone other than bernie this election, and living in CA, I knew that my vote really didn't do jack because CA always goes to the blue candidate.

"There are you, you drive like a demon from station to station," - David Bowie

I'm just hoping that trump is a do-nothing president. Nothing good or bad, because I strongly doubt he will do anything good like bringing back jobs to rural/middle america and nothing super bad cuz I want to live to be 90 in a functioning society.

If he does do any damage, I hope the next president can easily clean it up.

WildSimba wrote:Despite a lot of my difference in opinion with Trump, I'd of personally picked him over Clinton, because there's huge corruption on both sides, but I felt like he was the one who, in the end, reflected the will of the american people the most of the 2 major candidates in the end.

I'm curious why you (and other Trump supporters by all means respond as well!) feel that he reflects the will of the American people--what about his platform/promises made you say that? Have those opinions been affected at all by his actions already as elect and choices for cabinet?

If he actually still follows his first 100-day plan, I think he has the possibility for a good amount of positive change, and I think that to me is why I think he reflects the will most of the American people.

FIRST, propose a Constitutional Amendment to impose term limits on all members of Congress;

I completely agree with this, for the same reason I think there should be a term limit on presidents. Letting one person stay in too long, allows for very easy manipulation of power in their favor, so very much I think this is in favor of the american people.

SECOND, a hiring freeze on all federal employees to reduce federal workforce through attrition (exempting military, public safety, and public health);

To be honest, not sure what I feel on this one, it's kind of vague.

* THIRD, a requirement that for every new federal regulation, two existing regulations must be eliminated;

Yes please, I think from living in California, I've personally seen how much insane regulations we have, that do absolutely nothing to benefit us. Now, I hope that this would also mean adding new vital Enviromental regulations, but I'm not counting my money on it.

FOURTH, a 5 year-ban on White House and Congressional officials becoming lobbyists after they leave government service;

Again, I think that this is a positive to the American people. I think that Lobbyists do very great injustices to the american political system, and our democracy as a whole, in order to suit their own private gain, please private investors, ex.

FIFTH, a lifetime ban on White House officials lobbying on behalf of a foreign government;

Again, I don't disagree with this for the same reason as the last one.

SIXTH, a complete ban on foreign lobbyists raising money for American elections.

Again, yes please.

* FIRST, I will announce my intention to renegotiate NAFTA or withdraw from the deal under Article 2205

* SECOND, I will announce our withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership

* THIRD, I will direct my Secretary of the Treasury to label China a currency manipulator

* FOURTH, I will direct the Secretary of Commerce and U.S. Trade Representative to identify all foreign trading abuses that unfairly impact American workers and direct them to use every tool under American and international law to end those abuses immediately

* FIFTH, I will lift the restrictions on the production of $50 trillion dollars' worth of job-producing American energy reserves, including shale, oil, natural gas and clean coal.

* SEVENTH, cancel billions in payments to U.N. climate change programs and use the money to fix America's water and environmental infrastructure

I'm generally mixed on this posting, because I think that even if passed, I'm not sure what specific good most of it will do, but I don't necessarily disagree that certain things about NAFTA need to be ammended.

* FIRST, cancel every unconstitutional executive action, memorandum and order issued by President Obama

* SECOND, begin the process of selecting a replacement for Justice Scalia from one of the 20 judges on my list, who will uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States

* THIRD, cancel all federal funding to Sanctuary Cities

* FOURTH, begin removing the more than 2 million criminal illegal immigrants from the country and cancel visas to foreign countries that won't take them back

* FIFTH, suspend immigration from terror-prone regions where vetting cannot safely occur. All vetting of people coming into our country will be considered extreme vetting.

Don't disagree with him cracking down on things that are actually unconstitutional, as what he's deeming unconstitutional is actually such. Don't disagree with him really cracking down on our immigration policies (although I think he also needs to heavily revise a lot of things in relation to the immigration court before actually imposting laws on immigration), and think that we definitely should be blocking out countries that our terror prone. (As a result of what we've seen with them letting in people from these countries into france as refugees, the unfortunate thing is it just isn't a smart thing to do, to let uncivilized people into western civilization.)

Middle Class Tax Relief And Simplification Act. An economic plan designed to grow the economy 4% per year and create at least 25 million new jobs through massive tax reduction and simplification, in combination with trade reform, regulatory relief, and lifting the restrictions on American energy. The largest tax reductions are for the middle class. A middle-class family with 2 children will get a 35% tax cut. The current number of brackets will be reduced from 7 to 3, and tax forms will likewise be greatly simplified. The business rate will be lowered from 35 to 15 percent, and the trillions of dollars of American corporate money overseas can now be brought back at a 10 percent rate.

End The Offshoring Act. Establishes tariffs to discourage companies from laying off their workers in order to relocate in other countries and ship their products back to the U.S. tax-free.

American Energy & Infrastructure Act. Leverages public-private partnerships, and private investments through tax incentives, to spur $1 trillion in infrastructure investment over 10 years. It is revenue neutral.School Choice And Education Opportunity Act. Redirects education dollars to give parents the right to send their kid to the public, private, charter, magnet, religious or home school of their choice. Ends common core, brings education supervision to local communities. It expands vocational and technical education, and make 2 and 4-year college more affordable.Repeal and Replace Obamacare Act. Fully repeals Obamacare and replaces it with Health Savings Accounts, the ability to purchase health insurance across state lines, and lets states manage Medicaid funds. Reforms will also include cutting the red tape at the FDA: there are over 4,000 drugs awaiting approval, and we especially want to speed the approval of life-saving medications.

Affordable Childcare and Eldercare Act. Allows Americans to deduct childcare and elder care from their taxes, incentivizes employers to provide on-side childcare services, and creates tax-free Dependent Care Savings Accounts for both young and elderly dependents, with matching contributions for low-income families.End Illegal Immigration Act Fully-funds the construction of a wall on our southern border with the full understanding that the country Mexico will be reimbursing the United States for the full cost of such wall; establishes a 2-year mandatory minimum federal prison sentence for illegally re-entering the U.S. after a previous deportation, and a 5-year mandatory minimum for illegally re-entering for those with felony convictions, multiple misdemeanor convictions or two or more prior deportations; also reforms visa rules to enhance penalties for overstaying and to ensure open jobs are offered to American workers first.

Restoring Community Safety Act. Reduces surging crime, drugs and violence by creating a Task Force On Violent Crime and increasing funding for programs that train and assist local police; increases resources for federal law enforcement agencies and federal prosecutors to dismantle criminal gangs and put violent offenders behind bars.

Restoring National Security Act. Rebuilds our military by eliminating the defense sequester and expanding military investment; provides Veterans with the ability to receive public VA treatment or attend the private doctor of their choice; protects our vital infrastructure from cyber-attack; establishes new screening procedures for immigration to ensure those who are admitted to our country support our people and our values

Clean up Corruption in Washington Act. Enacts new ethics reforms to Drain the Swamp and reduce the corrupting influence of special interests on our politics.

With all of these, I want a lot more thought out of a description of any and all of these before he passes any of them. Some of these can be hugely damning depending on how much or how little is included within the act. Like, if he ACTUALLY plans on repealing Obamacare, I hope he plans on setting out a much better laid out plan than this, because that would be terrible. Also, absolutely no on the wall, I would fight hard to not let that pass if he actually attempts to pass it. Also, anything affecting the enviroment that he tries to pass, I'll also fight hard along with the rest of the liberals to make sure he doesn't pass anything damning. (Such as continuing to allow Fossil Fuels to be used in opposition to renewable energy.)

So trump in general is really a mixed bag for me, I think in a lot of ways he really did reflect the will of the American people better than Hilary, who wanted nothing more in the end really than her own personal and political gain (though all the countless instances of corruption, rigging the election in favor of herself during the primaries against Bernie Sanders, showing that she can't properly handle situations in places like Benghazi, as well as that horrible No Fly Zone she wanted to impose in Syria, which literally could of landed us in a huge war with Russia; possible WW3 on our hands with that one. And overall she just had shown her corruption over the past 30 years she's been working in politics.)

So while not perfect, I thought that Trump was the better of the 2 major party candidates. Now, I wholly wanted Bernie Sanders during the primaries, I agreed with nearly everyone of his imposed policies and think that our country could really benefit from some Socialist ideals. In the end, I ended up voting for Gary Johnson, because for me, in good conscience, he was the closest I could get to voting for a man who's ideals lined up more with Bernie's and my own, during the final election.

In the end, we're going to have a very long fight ahead of us, and we're going to have to do a lot of work to make sure that our 2020 election shapes up to be a much better one than this. Because I'll just be honest here, the entire thing was a Crap-Show from the second the primaries ended. Our entire sense of Democracy is at stake after this one, and we're going to have to really battle it out to be able to move on and make it through here. So here's to all us getting together, of all political views, and making sure that the America we want us to continue to have, will strive and get better.

Also, recommend doing some research on Lobbying and the like, to anyone who doesn't know. My real opinion here is to make yourself as informed on these things as possible and come to your own conclusions from there. Don't pass by just being a part of the crowd and flooding with the popular opinion. Our comfortable life as we know it is very much at stake here. So please, if you get anything out of this post or this thread, my heaviest thing I want to stress is, please be informed of everything here. Politics is a thing that can truly shape our country for the better, if used for good.

"There are you, you drive like a demon from station to station," - David Bowie

I don't foresee anything good coming in the next few years, but I've always been extremely pessimistic about politics. I mean that happens when your whole life stupid political systems have made everything unnecessarily difficult and the people in positions of power are all corrupt and don't care at all about the little guys; because of course the only way you can be in a bad way financially is if you're lazy, don'tcha know.

Trump can go straight to hell, and he can take Hillary and the entire current political system of the US with him.

If people want things to ever improve in this place, we need to get more third parties to become big enough to stand a chance and get a foothold; without there being a couple more dominant parties, we're doomed to relive 2016's abysmal election over and over again until we end up in a nuclear winter.

Thanks for the response, WS! I'm going to try and probably fail to be even-keeled here, since I do feel rather strongly on the subject. But you made some good points, and he does have a few ideas I agree with.

FIRST, propose a Constitutional Amendment to impose term limits on all members of Congress;

You're right; I do hope he prioritizes term limits for congress. That's very sensible.

SECOND, a hiring freeze on all federal employees to reduce federal workforce through attrition (exempting military, public safety, and public health);

Agreed, this is rather vague.

* THIRD, a requirement that for every new federal regulation, two existing regulations must be eliminated;

To your hope on environmental regulation: doesn't this expressly work against it? Again, this feels (like the above one) to just be blustery rhetoric that would make for awful actual policy. Some regulations we have are unnecessary, to be sure. But many are not, and when policymakers decide that there's a need for new regulation, I think it's a terrible idea to have to find two to get rid of. If HHS needs to regulate a new type of heart surgery, I don't want them to have to fight tooth and nail over what old econ bills to get rid of in the meantime.

FOURTH, a 5 year-ban on White House and Congressional officials becoming lobbyists after they leave government service;

Good stuff, although some of his cabinet members don't appear to particularly have qualms about exploiting the political system for financial gain...

FIFTH, a lifetime ban on White House officials lobbying on behalf of a foreign government;

Also good.

SIXTH, a complete ban on foreign lobbyists raising money for American elections.

Sure.

* FIRST, I will announce my intention to renegotiate NAFTA or withdraw from the deal under Article 2205

* SECOND, I will announce our withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership

* THIRD, I will direct my Secretary of the Treasury to label China a currency manipulator

* FOURTH, I will direct the Secretary of Commerce and U.S. Trade Representative to identify all foreign trading abuses that unfairly impact American workers and direct them to use every tool under American and international law to end those abuses immediately

* FIFTH, I will lift the restrictions on the production of $50 trillion dollars' worth of job-producing American energy reserves, including shale, oil, natural gas and clean coal.

* SEVENTH, cancel billions in payments to U.N. climate change programs and use the money to fix America's water and environmental infrastructure

I'm surprised you don't have strong feelings about some of the strongly anti-environmental stuff here (deregulate big coal/oil, fast-track Keystone XL pipeline, cancelling UN climate change programs... also, he doesn't think climate change is real). Withdrawing from the TPP as it stands I'm ambivalent on--I don't love the idea of giving up economic hegemony in the region to China but the deal is flawed and clearly designed by wealthy corporations, and it has serious sovereignty issues, so it's whatever. NAFTA remains a weird economic boogieman that has had mild effects on everyone involved, but if he wants to take a crack at renegotiating, I suppose that's fine.

* FIRST, cancel every unconstitutional executive action, memorandum and order issued by President Obama

* SECOND, begin the process of selecting a replacement for Justice Scalia from one of the 20 judges on my list, who will uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States

* THIRD, cancel all federal funding to Sanctuary Cities

* FOURTH, begin removing the more than 2 million criminal illegal immigrants from the country and cancel visas to foreign countries that won't take them back

* FIFTH, suspend immigration from terror-prone regions where vetting cannot safely occur. All vetting of people coming into our country will be considered extreme vetting.

I'm fine with removing illegal immigrants who are convicted of violent crimes. But his rhetoric has trended towards removing peaceful illegal immigrants and cancelling the citizenship of illegal immigrant children living under the DREAM act--essentially, I do not believe that people who are brought as kids, grow up in our schools, work hard, get jobs, etc should be rounded up, separated from their families and sent back where they came from. Even for grownups, I cannot endorse deporting people from much of Latin America, which is war-torn from gang violence and impoverished in ways I think many Americans have the privilege of forgetting still exist.

Middle Class Tax Relief And Simplification Act. An economic plan designed to grow the economy 4% per year and create at least 25 million new jobs through massive tax reduction and simplification, in combination with trade reform, regulatory relief, and lifting the restrictions on American energy. The largest tax reductions are for the middle class. A middle-class family with 2 children will get a 35% tax cut. The current number of brackets will be reduced from 7 to 3, and tax forms will likewise be greatly simplified. The business rate will be lowered from 35 to 15 percent, and the trillions of dollars of American corporate money overseas can now be brought back at a 10 percent rate.

End The Offshoring Act. Establishes tariffs to discourage companies from laying off their workers in order to relocate in other countries and ship their products back to the U.S. tax-free.

American Energy & Infrastructure Act. Leverages public-private partnerships, and private investments through tax incentives, to spur $1 trillion in infrastructure investment over 10 years. It is revenue neutral.School Choice And Education Opportunity Act. Redirects education dollars to give parents the right to send their kid to the public, private, charter, magnet, religious or home school of their choice. Ends common core, brings education supervision to local communities. It expands vocational and technical education, and make 2 and 4-year college more affordable.Repeal and Replace Obamacare Act. Fully repeals Obamacare and replaces it with Health Savings Accounts, the ability to purchase health insurance across state lines, and lets states manage Medicaid funds. Reforms will also include cutting the red tape at the FDA: there are over 4,000 drugs awaiting approval, and we especially want to speed the approval of life-saving medications.

Affordable Childcare and Eldercare Act. Allows Americans to deduct childcare and elder care from their taxes, incentivizes employers to provide on-side childcare services, and creates tax-free Dependent Care Savings Accounts for both young and elderly dependents, with matching contributions for low-income families.End Illegal Immigration Act Fully-funds the construction of a wall on our southern border with the full understanding that the country Mexico will be reimbursing the United States for the full cost of such wall; establishes a 2-year mandatory minimum federal prison sentence for illegally re-entering the U.S. after a previous deportation, and a 5-year mandatory minimum for illegally re-entering for those with felony convictions, multiple misdemeanor convictions or two or more prior deportations; also reforms visa rules to enhance penalties for overstaying and to ensure open jobs are offered to American workers first.

Restoring Community Safety Act. Reduces surging crime, drugs and violence by creating a Task Force On Violent Crime and increasing funding for programs that train and assist local police; increases resources for federal law enforcement agencies and federal prosecutors to dismantle criminal gangs and put violent offenders behind bars.

Restoring National Security Act. Rebuilds our military by eliminating the defense sequester and expanding military investment; provides Veterans with the ability to receive public VA treatment or attend the private doctor of their choice; protects our vital infrastructure from cyber-attack; establishes new screening procedures for immigration to ensure those who are admitted to our country support our people and our values

Clean up Corruption in Washington Act. Enacts new ethics reforms to Drain the Swamp and reduce the corrupting influence of special interests on our politics.

A bit on this stuff: his tax plan is (I hope not to sound too overbearing) generally viewed rather negatively from both sides, and the tax policy center predicted it would drastically increase the national debt unless yet-unannounced spending cuts go along with it, while also reiterating the the plan highly favors the wealthiest Americans. He has committed to repealing the ACA (Obamacare) wholesale as soon as possible, but at present there is no workable alternative plan. Some of these bits in here, like the offshore tariffs bit, I do like (albeit I'm uneducated on), and I tentatively support shrinking the corporate tax rate, which he supports.

I wrote a long list of things about his policy/cabinet choices/personal choices that I disagree with, but I'm not going to throw them at you (unless you want!) because we probably have plenty to work with right here.